sunset from behind the wire

Friday, March 24, 2017

Thoughts on Healthcare Insurance, etc.

Part One

Life is risky. So people have learned to mitigate that risk by paying for insurance, which spreads the risk out like a bookmaker spreads his bets to balance his book (so that he always wins). Healthcare was never an entitlement but Barack and friends elevated it to that status without a way to make it affordable to anyone. Thus the ObamaCare system collapsed just as the Democrats knew that it would. They hoped to install a full socialist healthcare system with death panels for people who were too old to continue to pay in. That's how it worked, it's not a secret. But then the Republicans screwed it up by getting elected to a majority in both houses of Congress and to add insult to injury, President Trump was elected.

When I was young, people who couldn't afford to have a baby in a hospital, had a baby at home. Maybe that was attended by a midwife, maybe not. But babies were born. If there were complications somebody would call a doctor, who would arrive and help with the delivery if he/she could.

Today, the nation feels that it is entitled to Cadillac care, but they don't want to pay for it - having somebody else foot the bill feels a lot better. But as with all socialist programs, you eventually run out of somebody else's money.

Part Two

A response to the Daily Timewaster: The quickest way to put America on a firm financial footing would be for the government to acknowledge that the Social Security Trust Fund was looted by Congress to fund the Vietnam War and that they are repudiating both Social Security and Medicare.

We've all been screwed. But nobody has the courage to admit it including President Trump who ran on a platform of saving Social Security.

USGOV blew $6 trillion on the unnecessary war in Iraq and the partially necessary war in Afghanistan (the first two years were useful). Thanks George W. and Barack. We pumped another $3 billion into social justice welfare programs during the Obama regime to buy votes - but that didn't work out for Corrupt Hillary.

Part Three

Telling people that there are no more free ObamaPhones, no more free cheese and no more goodies is not something that politicians are able to do (any more than they were during the Roman Republic). As soon as the American Healthcare Act has passed, the Democrats will pounce with the aid of the corrupt, nasty, pugnacious, filthy, elite, mainstream media and will denounce it for taking away "rights" to free/subsidized healthcare for voting Americans.

Our nation is a snake eating its tail. Eat up, take a big bite, because we too will eventually run out of other people's money.

As to the present healthcare bill, if the House doesn't pass it and send it to the Senate tomorrow, it's dead. And all of those folks who have it will have to cope with an increasingly collapsed ObamaCare program as the taxes that feed it dwindle and as money is not appropriated to revive it. The states will muddle along as best they can.

What will President Trump do? He'll move on having given it his best shot. There are other things that he needs to deal with as president. If he's fed up enough, he won't run for re-election and will go back to his mansions, his stunningly beautiful wife and his billions.

Tough Love

The federal government's core role is providing for the common defense, making treaties with foreign powers, coining money, and regulating interstate commerce. There's been a lot of slippage. The government owes you protection, some moderate regulation, and so forth -- not a lifetime of financial support, free cell service and healthcare.

Which is to say that people need to take responsibility for their own lives. If they do well, nobless oblige requires that they give to charity to help the poorest among us. Or the states can do that. Our human greed has put us into the hole that we find ourselves in -- like so many experiments with republics, ours has failed. We're a welfare state pretending to be a republic. How else can you frame 65/300 million people receiving food stamps?

The Corrupt Chicago Machine

America pushed the most corrupt political machine that the nation has seen in recent years into the White House and to oust it would have been "racist". They used the IRS and EPA as attack dogs and they spied on us (see Snowden). Other disturbing information is trickling out about spying on President Trump during the transition and leaking it. They initiated Operation Fast and Furious as a scheme and an excuse to pass harsher firearms control. They stole everything that they were able to - looted the nation three ways from Sunday. They offered as much free as they were able and opened the borders to "high propensity Democrat voters" (illegal aliens) in an effort to retain the dynasty. That failed. But they didn't lose. Not really. They'll be back.

20 comments:

But then again, you are asking the wrong guy. Ask liberals, and the will tell you that you are about as mean spirited as a snake, and probably kick puppies to make yourself feel better. Of course, these same pinkos cannot tell you why you are wrong. But they can come up with lots of bad names to call you to embellish their argument.

Some systems of government are sustainable in the longer term, some are not. Republics tend to devolve into democracies and from there they spin into dictatorships or socialist states and then they crash.

So far this year I have personally donated over $14,000 to charity. I usually don't crow over that sort of thing, but I believe in giving to institutions that help people less fortunate. I sincerely feel that we all have an obligation to insure that there is food in food banks for the hungry. I think that teaching a person to fish is more important than handing them a fish, but that the disabled and the weakest among us need our attention. However I object to money being taken away at the point of a bayonet and that's what the current taxation system does - and in California it works out to be about 65% (all taxes), which is WAY too much.

I object to tax money going to pay for programs for ILLEGAL aliens. I realize that they vote Democrat, but they are criminals because they are here ILLEGALLY. Legal immigrants are a different issue. If the US needs migrant workers, establish a migrant worker program to allow them to work here LEGALLY. Oh, I could go on.

Appropriation bills originate in the House of Representatives. It's time for the legislature to legislate - or not. The Republicans have been whining for a decade about how they need a majority legislature and a president. They have it. Put up or shut up.

President Trump is willing to turn his back on healthcare, let ObamaCare collapse and allow Congress (Dem and Rep) take the heat. How big are those elected officials' ballz?

There just aren't enough adjectives in the English language to describe the vile nature of American journalism. Maybe we need to invent some new ones. Perhaps "shitspittle" or "dungdoozy" or "uppityfuck" maybe even "waffle munching frenchman?"

Sadly, you're not. And the healthcare bill didn't get a vote. If I were Trump, I'd wash my hands of it, point out that he tried, and it's now back on the Dems as Obamacare implodes. Re security/intel collection, that's a rat's nest that once opened is going to be a horror story, I know how high 'I' think it goes, but will be interested to see how it plays out.

Trump will get his piece of flesh from the Freedom caucus. He may not have to do anything. I did not like the bill, but I thought that it was a compromise and that's politics. Diplomacy is the art of saying, "nice doggy," while you're looking for a rock.

There is one way to make Medicare and Social Security go away. Simply refuse to accept the benefits. That is what I plan to do. It is too bad that there is no way to opt out from paying in (that results in prison). Oh, and if you refuse Medicare, the government will withhold your social security in revenge--the government actually makes it easy.

The government forces it. Doctors standing up to the government would be one way to fix the mess, but there will be sell-outs who will not go along with that program.

The government screws up so many things for us. Social justice programs are usually unjust and collapse - again because you run out of other people's money. It's not like the ObamaCare collapse was a surprise to anyone other than Pelosi, who is rich, but dim.

And I should add that the problem with 'just letting Obamacare implode', is that is what the Demons wanted from the start. Destroy everyones' insurance, cut the number of doctors available, then let people line up for the single payer system where the 'guvmint' decides who sees a doctor and who doesn't.

You aren't wrong, and I think our president did the right thing by letting it implode upon it's self.People do need to take responsibility for their own lives. It has been made easy to sell a soul (your own or someone elses)to get the free stuff. Anyone who has worked for a government entity knows how grossly mismanaged things are, and have been for quite sometime. We let that happen by not paying attention or looking to the long view I'm thinking !?!

The present society is busy with stuff that largely matters little and their attention is directed away from the business of government. We hire politicians to watch over it and they're largely a bunch of cooks. They legislate - lots of taxes. We think of a quarter point here or there as nothing to us as individuals but it amounts to many billions of dollars in the aggregation.

Efficient people in government are often marginalized or demonized by their co-workers who make them look bad. Sometimes they last but too often, they toss in the towel.

The curtain has been pulled back and we can see the wreck that we have, made worse by successive regimes.

Housekeeping

As of January 1, 2017 this blog began to receive anonymous posts. I try not to delete them, but if you want to be taken seriously here, you need to identify yourself, if only by some sort of cryptonym.

Welcome to Virtual Mirage

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the cat. "We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad," asked Alice?

"You must be," said the cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Good Morning

Virtual Mirage - What's on the other side of the mirror? Ask Alice how deep the rabbit hole really goes.

This blog is an extension of MY JOURNEY because sometimes my journey needs more explanation, and sometimes there is more to be said than can be expressed on one ordinary blog.

Sometimes it's politics (very serious), sometimes I address the human condition with a dose of humor, and other times it may seem as if the track is headed in a unique direction. I can be a complicated guy at times.

There are a few things you'll find I consider:

* Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

* Sometimes the questions are complex but the answers are simple.

* Love is the only condition where the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

* Steers do not sign treaties with meat packers. (think on that)

* Taxes are NEVER levied for the benefit of the taxed.

* The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no victory possible in defense.

WHITE POWDER (Novel)

There is something intoxicating about a secret.

THE OLD WHORE (NOVEL)

In the peculiar culture of the Central Intelligence Agency, "old whores" are people who will do whatever it takes to get the job done, irrespective of the cost.

EXILES FROM EDEN (NOVEL)

Sparks fly as two star-crossed lovers meet. He runs toward trouble as she yearns for something missing. And it ends in a flight from and toward justice.

About Me

Today, I balance work and play as much as anyone can. All things remaining equal, play is more important. Life is short - it's important to make every day count for something, if only to yourself.
I'm a former tinker/tailor/soldier/sailor who has now decided that maybe it really wasn't all done for nothing.

This site contains copyrighted material, the use of which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for educational purposes, and as such this constitutes 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Act. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.